Clairity Click-it: Nonprofit Ticket to Links, Free Resources

Here’s some end-of-summer reading to get you ready for the busy fall season. My newest collection of articles, webinars, templates. reports and guides – all free – that I’ve encountered in my readings across the web. They’re my gift to you, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy finding them for you.

I also author offer plenty of original content all year round. I’ve got a LOT to share with you based on my 35 years’ experience – 30 of them in the trenches – plus all the new things I learn every day in my practice.

P.S. I’m also available for one-on-one coaching, and offer up to four deeply discounted hours to members of the Clairification community. Please email me at claire@clairification.com if you have any questions.

Clairity Click-it, Your Nonprofit Ticket to…

Annual Individual Giving

Click-it: Top 10 Ways to Upgrade Nonprofit Donors. It’s more cost-effective to retain and upgrade an existing donor than to acquire a new one. See my article on the Bloomerang blog to learn how to do it!

Click-it: Use Social Selling to Drive Increased Nonprofit Fundraising. My most recent article for Maximize Social Business (I’m there every month, along with a whole bunch of other great social media bloggers). This month it’s all about finding, developing and nurturing leads/prospects so you can convert as many as possible into sales/gifts.

Click-it: Our issue is on the news. Now what? If you work in an area that relates to what folks are “googling” these days, you should be spending free Google grant ad dollars to assure folks find you. They want to do something; your job is to make it easy. Learn how with this article by Nick Ellinger of Donor Drive.

Social Engagement

Click-it: Is Blogging Dead? I agree in spades with this post from Kristina LeRoux on the Nonprofit Communications blog. If your nonprofit isn’t rocking a blog, I’d recommend it!

Click-it: Ultimate Guide to Nonprofit Instagram. If you want to engage current supporters and attract new ones, look no further than this hot visual platform for sharing compelling visuals that tell your stories – without having to write 1000 words. Great tips from Kristen Hay on the Bloomerang blog.

Board Meetings

Events

Click-it: Charity Auctions: The Ultimate Guide. Everything from live, to silent to online. From what, and why and when. From before, and during and after. It’s all here, put together for you by the folks at Double the Donation.

Strategy and Management

Click-it:Live Benchmarks. Brand new TODAY, the folk at the Fundraising Report Card are rolling out benchmarks that will update DAILY. For free! Measure your donor retention rates, average donation size and other fundraising metrics against other nonprofits. Aggregate benchmarks will be measured from all $15 billion in donations they have, but in the near future you’ll be able to segment your benchmarks based off of organization sector and size. This is super useful when you get questions from your board or boss as to how well you’re measuring up!

NOT FREE, BUT WELL WORTH A LOOK

Get yourself inspired for the year-end push!

Click-it:Nonprofit Leadership Summit [Register Before 9-18-17] hosted by Mazarine Treyz of Wildwoman Fundraising. Hear from the experts — over three days in September — on navigating change, elevating board fundraising, inspiring your staff, eliminating siloes, integrating marketing and fundraising, getting on board with monthly giving and lots more, without even leaving your office or home! It’s at least a $2,000 value, but you’ll pay much, much less because it’s got sponsors. So there are discounts! Big ones. This is a huge bargain. Just like a three-day conference, but it costs much less and you don’t have to travel. And guess what else? I’m presenting, so I get to offer you a coupon for a whopping $300 off the already discounted price! Make sure to use it:clairity clickit

Did You Miss My Recent Articles?

Enroll in Clairification School to get access to every single article I’ve ever written! I cover everything, most notably: Annual Giving; Donor Retention; Major Gifts; Social Engagement; Online Fundraising; Boards & Leadership; Culture & Values; Strategy & Management, and Content Marketing. I also take requests!

Engaging your help was such a huge pivot moment for me and the Board. We would never – not in a million years – have even dreamed of doing a significant challenge at our event without all of the teaching, support, resources and guidance that you brought to us. Sometimes there are these moments in life that you only realize in retrospect were miracles – and that is exactly how I look back at that decision to work with you on our fundraising engine!

Claire Axelrad has been a highly effective fundraiser for over 30 years and her blog is just a wealth of wisdom. What’s particularly notable about Clairification is that although the work is based on decades of past experience, Claire is always looking forward as well. She was the first among her veteran fundraising peers to embrace online and social fundraising and is now one of their most sensible and insightful proponents. She’s a great resource!

You have been absolutely terrific to work with. Your roadmap and assessment of where we are and where we can go has been so instrumental in having the board stop and think about our future. Your audit is allowing us to move forward in tangible ways to improve our work so that we may help more clients in need of our services. I will count you among my many blessings throughout the year.

I’m subscribed to a million fundraising blogs and the one I consistently open and read most of, is yours. The content is always carefully curated and helpful, not just sales pitch after sales pitch for your own stuff. You stand out, in a good way.

You are one of the few fundraising experts that I read faithfully, and we have no shortage of those who publish regularly. But your material is always thoughtful and realistic. Thank you for your candor and good advice.

I read your newsletter all the time and find your advice “spot on” and always usable. I pass it on consistently to the staff and other board members. I really appreciate all you do to help nonprofits. Thanks.

You remind me about what is most important and why I love this profession. I just discovered you and your blog about three weeks ago and I wanted to write today to say thank you for sharing your wisdom and expertise. I find your posts, new and old, so spot on. You nail it.

Everybody involved in philanthropy should read these articles slowly and with a very opened mind and a willingness to take from them the necessary components to change the manner and techniques we presently use in order to embrace what philanthropy is all about “Love”. I have no doubt it would be transformational.

I came across your website and I hit the goldmine! I was asked to join a board and found I need to understand how to build a donor base from the ground up. I searched, only to find expensive consultants or free info that didn’t offer any helpful information. Thank you for sharing so much valuable information!!

Wow! Inspiration out the wazoo! Many thanks — I keep up with trends and lots of blog-posts to stay on top of my game. This goes way beyond technique and reaches deep inside to remind me why I’ve done this work for 40 years!

Thank you for your brilliant blog. I have been a follower for many years and learnt so much from you. Ultimately, it translates into many more families getting the support they deserve. You help me raise more money for my UK charity. Please never stop bringing the best out of me! You’re special.

Exactly what our profession can use – clarification –- the title of your blog. You help us keep faith with the past while making sense of the present and future. You have a balanced and respectful understanding of what this is all about. Thanks.

I’d recommend you sign up. I signed up for about a dozen blogging fundraiser consultants, but have since canceled most. She’s one of two left standing. I like how she organizes her thoughts about fundraising, and her conversation planning techniques are very familiar to me from my work as a prosecutor. I believe that she was a practicing attorney and who changed careers like I have, and my best guess is that she was a litigator as well. This is a very good article and there are several other blogs (her own) that she links to within it, so even though this is a small article you could spend some time here.

Created by fundraisers for fundraisers, Bloomerang makes it easy for nonprofits of all shapes and sizes to build and manage donor relationships key to long-term success. -Claire

When Claire speaks, we listen. There are few consultants in the nonprofit sector who so closely align with Bloomerang's focus on donor stewardship and retention. The Clairification School provides too much value to ignore!

Check out their state-of-the-art marketing solutions and technology focused on major and legacy gift qualification and cultivation.-Claire

There are plenty of resources online, but you know the old adage, "you get what you pay for." Skip the "same old" blog posts, and head to Clairification School to get relevant, timely, and most importantly effective resources today.

Firespring offers beautiful websites with an integrated marketing, software and fundraising suite—all you need to make life easier for you and your supporters.-Claire

Claire’s fresh perspective and unwavering approach to instill new ideas, techniques and proven practices are but a few reasons why Clarification School is a tremendous resource.

Clairification School offers a wealth of information and knowledge; Claire communicates so clearly and simply that even brand-new concepts are easy to grasp and put into practice.

Helping nonprofits raise more money online for more than 20 years through one of the easiest-to-use and most affordable fundraising platforms available.-Claire

Claire Axelrad is one of the smartest philanthropy coaches we know. Take advantage of her expertise by enrolling in the Clairification School. You'll gain a wealth of knowledge to take your fundraising to the next level.